My Birthday Weekend

Oh where to begin...

Saturday morning I was up early for my housing orientation. The Manager Billy Ross and his wife went over our contracts, alien registration, and house rules. This house has a LOT of rules. Most of which are simple, common courtesy, no brainers. The most annoying one is no visitors after 7pm. I mean, what IS that? SMH. But Billy (a Scottish guy with an amazing accent) and his wife (a cute Japanese woman) are really cool, they are super helpful and really nice. Living here is not going to be half bad...

I finally unpacked and got settled in after that. Then I went to Don Quixote with Yong and Bryce. I posted a picture of it last update... Its wal-mart on crack (a term coined by me, and picked up by the rest of the DK House people). Picture wal-mart. Now make it a quarter of the size, but put all electronics and clothes on the 3rd floor, food and groceries and the like on the 2nd floor, and everything else on the first. Got it? Okay now cut the size in half and squish everything together. Now you have Don Quixote! The Japanese a SUPER space efficient. It comes with have half the population of the US in a country roughly the size of California...

After that we came back to the DK House for the hanami, or flower festival. Sakura, or cherry blossom trees are extremely popular in Japan (they have their own holiday) and are beautiful. The last post is full of them in bloom. The light pink flowers covering the trees. This past weekend was the sakura festival. So everyone picnics under sakura trees. That's what those pictures are from the last post.

After the DK House (DKM from now on) hanami, Yong, Bryce, and I traveled over to yotsuya (where my school is) to meet up with Kaitrin. Then the four of us traveled to Roppongi. Roppongi is infamous for being the crazy  night life area of Japan for tourists. Its supposed to be a tourist trap where they take your money and sell you drugs. But we were going to a school sponsored event (the school that Kaitrin attended when she was here last summer) and didn't go anywhere else. It was a fashion show/concert type deal with a bar and a live DJ. It was a lot of fun! First night out in Japan, check!

Sunday I had a lazy morning. Then I grabbed my neighbor Garlim for lunch. We made a quick grocery run, then tried out the communal kitchen for the first time. That was a lot of fun, and I made something pretty delicious. I really enjoy cooking for myself, and I am going to have to be careful not to spend too much money on cooking things that I will end up wasting when my time here is done...

Sunday afternoon I met up with Asuka for anther hanami. We met up with a friend of hers Noel and my DKH mate Yulia (from russia) and went to oedo park for a picnic. It was really fun and pretty. Everyone around us was drunk, so that was entertaining. But it got really cold after a while and we decided to leave.

Then came Monday (my birthday!). I got up really early (read: 8am) to go to city hall with a group of friends to get our alien registration. Its a legal document that we have to get to stay her legally longer then 90 days. I also need it to get my cell phone and bank account. So... hella important. We head out in the cold and rain armed with nothing but a map. And not that good of a map either. We were headed in generally the correct direction when we come to another group from DKH headed in the opposite... awk-ward. my group of five tried to tell thier group of 6 that they were headed in the wrong direction, but they were trying to convince us of the same thing, haha. So we decided to ask for help. Five people went across the street to ask the pizza delivery guys for directions. While the other half (my half) huddled under umbrellas and tried to figure it out for ourselves.

This is when random Japanese man (RJM) came to save the day. He pulls over and approaches me point and the map and saying what I could make out to mean (I can take you to the train station). I told him that we didn't want to go to the station and pointed to the city hall on the map saying that we want to go there. He does a head count and says that he will take us. Stunned, we motion to the other half of our group and tell him that there are 11 of us in total. He doesn't skip a beat, since he had a mini van he would just take us in two groups and all would be well. We cross the street and RJM tells the delivery boys that he's got it. I explain to the rest of the group that RJM wants to take us to city hall and asks if everyone is comfortable with that.

Disclaimer to my mom and aunties who I know are probably freaking out right now. First of all, Japan is an extremely polite and safe country. Secondly, we are in the suburbs, not in the city. Third, we were in a large group, half of which was male. Fourth, it was cold and raining and we were lost!

Everyone agreed, some a bit hesitantly, but we needed to stay together as a group. So my original group got in the van and were taken to the city hall. RJM went back for the others and brought them too. (Side note: my group was the one headed in the correct direction). The poor guy who had to file our paperwork was so overwhelmed. He had a basic understanding of English, to our basic Japanese, and was being flooded with people. There were groups going all day, ours was just the first. He did very well though, and got to practice his English! Once all that was said and done, my group left and walked back in decidedly less rainy conditions. We got back pretty easily, only asking for directions once.

As soon as we got back to DK House we left for the train station to meet up with Asuka. She took us to go get our commuter passes, so that we can stop wasting money on train tickets. We also tried to get cell phones, but couldnt find a place, and Asuka had to go. So then I went to Sophia (my school) while everyone else went back to DKH and Asuka went... wherever she had to go. At Sophia I met up with Yulia and we went to go ask about getting bank accounts for our scholarship and getting part-time jobs. Then we tried to go to the bank, but of course it closed 20min before we got there.

Once back at school I got ready to go out and met  up with Kat, Mary, Karey, and Megann, and we went out to shinjuku for my birthday. There we met up with Kaitrin and her friend, Chris. Apparently Yong and Bryce also came, but we were unable to find them. Shinjuku station is like a city under the city. It spans several blocks, has many restaurants and department stores, and vendors, and even a grocery store in it. It was insane! And pretty darn awesome. We finally found our way out and wandered into a random restaurant where we had dinner. That is where I ordered and drank my first legal drink! Technically the legal drinking age in Japan is 20. But I decided to hold out for the five days on principle. Your 21st birthday is supposed to be special!

After dinner I wanted to get cake. We couldn't find a cake place. Ice cream at baskin robbins was too expensive (and American) so we went to Mister Donut ( a popular Japanese donut shop). I got a chocolate donut that kinda looked like a cake. They all sang to me and we ate donuts! Then we went to a bar. It was British/Irish pub. I liked it because I knew what the drinks where and could order my favorites. Three drinks later (totaling 4 with dinner). I was felling happy (but not drunk, I promised my mom) and my wallet was feeling empty, so we headed home. Evening rush hour in japan isnt at 5 when work lets out, its at 11 when everyone is trying to catch the last trains home. When you are tipsy and hot, being shoved into a train is not fun. Finally getting to our home station we took the main rode back to DKH.

When I go there I wasn't feeling tired and I had a note from Yong saying "sorry I missed you!" so I went down to his room and we hung out till the wee hours of the morning. Now here I am after a good nights rest.

The plan for today is to finally get my phone and my bank account, then all  I  have to worry about is registering for classes at Sophia, and at LMU and possibly getting a part time job and doing all the immigration paperwork that comes with that... sigh.

ja, matta!  (later!)
~Sam